A touching tale of trucks, trailers, and tractors

(See, Mrs Chili? Alliteration! Fair English wrangling maven, me!)

So, yeah ... this rightfully belongs on the Farm Blog, but this aspect of me life has absorbed me the past several days so I thought I should put it here.

I've farmed since 1987. I was born in town, but thanks to my parents, I got my first horse in high school *koff*early 80s*koff* and my first goat and chickens in 1986.

It's been my dream to own 1) gobs of land, and 2) a tractor.

I mean, you can't call yourself a farmer until you own a big honkin' John Deere, right? Right?! One big enough to pull a house down.

Well, boys and girls, tractors are expensive.

But I have decided that the time is nigh to own one - not just for the 'hey-I'm-a-real-farmer-now' factor, but because we need one. Seriously. We also need the trailer.

So, to that end, I went by a trailer place today and spoke to a bloke. $1800 for a new trailer. $900 for a used one.

I don't effin' think so.

I was coming back through Newberry and i decided, just for giggles, to stop by the actual tractor dealership. hey, it wouldn't hurt to ask, right?

The salesman (hate salesmen. They're all like car salesmen or realtors, aren't they?) tried to 'get me into' a brand new Kubota:

(12k+ NOT happening.) Then he tried to foist off an old Massey Fruguson with wheelwells taller than my head. (7k - Uhm ... no. Way more tractor than I need, anyway):

I gave him my card and said "call me when you get something used in that you think I'll like."

'Suddenly' he remembered an old Ford he had out back.

Well, it is a sweet little venerable 8N (probably rolled off the assembly line the same year I did)with brand new tyres and just enough heft to move around the 1200lb round bales of hay we use. (The one he has isn't nearly this pretty, but is still sturdy. Look at that sexy grille! OK, it's a bit younger, too, but you get the gist):

We looked at the used trailers he had and , after I rejected the first one - it had been fishtailed by some moron and was crooked as a cat's arse - he promised to find me a good one.

So I'm looking at the tractor, trailer, a scrape blade, and a hay spike, for about half of the price of that Massey Ferguson.

CAN YOU TELL THAT I AM EXCITED?!

Poor Evil Genius Husband has been walking around all day with his 'Oh, crap' look on his face, poor lamb.

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And now, the bad news.

Our Farm Truck is a late 80s Ford F150 (the obligatory blue f150 apparently required to farm in newberry county, lol). I had been meaning to take it by our garage to get new tyres and a check-up.

Well, it has two problems: the back petrol tank is unusuable (truck runs for about a mile then shuts off when you're on the back tank) and it has been making these ominous clicking noises from the rear-end.

I was pretty sure of the rear-end problem - my universal joint. Sure enough, my mechanic rang me today and confirmed it. My total repairs/maintenance was running over $600. Crap.

So the bloke rings me back later and tells me that my back tank fuel pump is shot. New fuel pump and install will run me (brace yourself) $275.

I told him that I'd just use the front tank, thank you.

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Jeez, between the truck, the new fence, and the tractor, I am seriously dropping a huge wodge of cash. *sigh!*